Traditionally, UFC fighters have been able to cut their own sponsorship deals with companies for the rights to their fight shorts, T-shirts and caps they wear before and after bouts. These agreements, which can often land regional and local companies on fight gear, provide an additional source of revenue to supplement fighters' UFC contracts. The UFC has policed this practice, preventing some sponsorships from happening, but it has not owned the deal-flow process.

However, the days of fighters' managers cutting those deals appear to be ending.

Sad days for mid and lower level guys in the company,
they really cannot afford that.

As another option, the UFC also is considering taking a page from the music industry by establishing "360-degree contracts" with its athletes. As first reported by MMAPayout.com, these contracts would give the UFC access to a portion of all dollars generated by fighters outside of the octagon.

I can see where the things the UFC is doing makes good business sense for them, but to me, it just looks like greed. How is this good for the sport and most importantly the fighters'? If one organization has ALL the control (like a monopoly) and ALL the power, how can the fighters protect themselves and their interests?

There are a lot of similarities in the UFC and Nascar. For any certain brand to sponsor a car in nascar I beleave they have to pay nascar first. I could be wrong but I beleave that's right. I could see the UFC using nascar as a business model. It sucks for the fighters right now but over time this could cause the spot on a shirt in the octagon to be more valuable. Just a thought I'm not defending the UFC on this one.
I would like to be a fly on the wall when Dana has to explain this one to his fighters.

has anyone heard about how if any ufc fighter participates in the ea sports mma game they will be forever banned from the ufc?

any MMA fighter not with the UFC now and would want to later, yeah i could see that. no UFC fighter could be part of EA's game since they're already under UFC contract. you meant MMA fighters and not UFC, right?

any MMA fighter not with the UFC now and would want to later, yeah i could see that. no UFC fighter could be part of EA's game since they're already under UFC contract. you meant MMA fighters and not UFC, right?

nah i meant ufc fighters. apparently a few fighters like machida and randy actually havent signed away their likeness rights yet so they could be in the game but they wont. the makers of the ea game were talking about how they could get those two in their game. although it could also refer to fighters who arent in the ufc yet as well